The seventeenth Contemporary Life Republic Award, given every year on April 10th, the Day of Secularism, by the Association for the Support of Contemporary Living (ÇYDD), was presented to Prof. Dr. İoanna Kuçuradi.

In her opening speech at the ceremony, ÇYDD President Prof. Dr. Ayşe Yüksel expressed great happiness for presenting this year’s award to Prof. Dr. Kuçuradi, who has been awarded to Sn. Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Sn. Fazıl Say, Sn. Sabih Kanadoğlu, Sn. Rıza Türmen, Sn. Yıldız Kenter, Sn. Genco Erkal, Sn. Gülriz Sururi, Sn. Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Büyükerşen, Sn. Prof. Dr. Fatih Hilmioğlu, Sn. Prof. Dr. Nermin Abadan Unat, Sn. Prof. Dr. Doğan Kuban, Sn. Prof. Dr. Ümit Kocasakal, Sn. Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı, Sn. Müjdat Gezen, Sn. Prof. Dr. Yücel Aşkın, Sn. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Haberal, Sn. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yurtkuran, Sn. Prof. Dr. Ferit Bernay, Sn. Prof. Dr. Emre Kongar, and Sn. Ataol Behramoğlu in previous years, for her contributions to keeping alive and carrying the principle of secularism into the future in our country with her philosophy, human rights, and ethical studies. She also thanked her for her efforts.

Afterwards, the Deputy Chairman of the ÇYDD (Association for the Support of Contemporary Living) Av. Sedat Durna gave a speech on the importance of the principle of secularism and the date of April 10th for the Republic of Turkey. He stated, “The decision to award the 17th Contemporary Living Republic Award to Professor Dr. Ioanna Kuçuradi was made due to her great efforts in preserving, sustaining and promoting the values of the Republic, her numerous and pioneering works in the fields of human rights, philosophy, and ethics, and her contributions to the development of universal human rights, education and modern human life in our country. We are in a historical period where we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of our Republic and enter its second century.

We have a very important juncture in the second century of the Republic to complete the deficiencies on the path of modernization, and to create a contemporary society through a secular, scientific, and democratic education. We must evaluate the May 14th elections from this perspective and, as our citizenship duty, we must vote. We believe that if we can unite our forces without postponing the search for a better way during the transition to a democratic parliamentary system, we will shape our Republic in the second century in accordance with its spirit and essence by surpassing this critical juncture. We call on everyone to act with this consciousness and responsibility.”

Due to health problems, Professor Dr. Ioanna Kuçuradi was unable to attend the award ceremony held at the Maltepe Prof. Dr. Türkan Saylan Cultural Center, which was attended by members of the ÇYDD and young people, as well as the admirers of Professor Dr. Türkân Saylan. Professor Dr. Oktay Yalın, the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maltepe University, received the award on behalf of Professor Dr. Kuçuradi, who remotely delivered her speech at the ceremony. Kuçuradi thanked for the award and ended her speech by saying, “I enabled the determination of the value knowledge and human rights. Secularism also made human rights decisive.”

Since 2007, the ÇYDD has been awarding the Contemporary Living Republic Award on the anniversary of the removal of the sentence stating that “the religion of the Turkish state is Islam” in the second article of the Constitution and “the laws of Sharia shall be executed by the Turkish Grand National Assembly” in the 26th article, which was removed in accordance with the principle of secularization. The persons to be awarded the prize are determined by the votes of the members, volunteers, and young people of the ÇYDD among the names determined by the ÇYDD Central Executive Committee.